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N. G. DU BOIS.

RAILROAD SWITCH.

Patented iglov. 17, 1885.

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N. G. DU 1301s.

RAILROAD SWITCH.

N0. 330.826. Patented NOV. 17, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFF CE.

N. GREENARD DU BOIS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO F.R. MALONEY, OFSAME PLACE.

RAILROAD-SWITCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 330,826, dated November17, 188

Application lilcd September 8, 1884.

.To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, N. GREENARD DU 1301s, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inRailroad-Switches; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

The invention relates to that class of devices in which the switch isoperated by the movement of the street-car.- The object is to providethe track and car with such devices that the driver'can control theswitch at pleasure.

My invention therefore consists of construe tions and combinations, allas will hereinafter be described in the specification, and pointed outin the claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, inwhich Figure 1 represents a plan view of the track, having one sectionof the rail removed to show the switch-working parts beneath; Fig. 2, asection on line x 00, Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a plan of the bottom of the car;Fig. 4, a longitudinal section of a portion of the car; and Fig. 5 asection on line y 3 Fig. 3. Fig. 6 represents a top plan of the crankand pawl. 1

In Fig. 1 the main track is shown with two branch or side tracks; but itwill be obvious from the following description that the dev ice can beused on a single branch. It will therefore be only necessary to minutelydescribe one branch, as both are constructed in a similar manner, thenecessary changes for a right or left hand branch track being made.

A represents the main track; A and A the right and left hand branchtracks. One section-rail of the main track A, at a point near theswitch, is provided with a grooved rail, a, which at the switch end a ismade flaring to connect it with the branch. Upon end a is a raised part,0?, having a semicircular end, a against which the movable tongue railor switch a abuts. Against the opposite end, (t the end of the flange onthe main-track rail (1 and the inner flange of the branch-track rail a"abut for an obvious purpose. The other rail is provided with astationary tongue-rail,

Serial No. 142,519. (No model.)

aiwhich abuts against the flange of the branchtraclz rail a", to serveas a bearing for the-can wheels when the car is shifted from the main tothe branch track by movable tongue-rail a. If two branches are desired,the end a of each main-track rail is provided with a movabletongue-rail, a, and a stationary rail, a

proj ection a is of the same length as the opening a", which is providedwith an extension, a, of less width than the opening a. The toe a ofprojection a projects beneath the rail to hold the loose end of thetongue down.

The tongue may be withdrawn from opening a by removing the pivot a.Beneath the rail or is a box, or, having bearings a for a shaft, a",provided with collars a, a and a The collar to has a longitudinalgroove, a, for the projection 04 on the movable tongue-rail a*, which ismoved to the right or left as the shaft a" is partly revolved to theright orleft, thus causingthe car to pass either on the main or thebranch track.

To partly revolve shaft (i various means may be used, that shown,however, being preferred, and which will now be described.

'Upon shaft a, as before mentioned, are double collars a and a, eachhaving longitudinal grooves a and cf, the latter being on the oppositeside of the shaft to the former.- Between each pair of collars is agroove, a, for the reception of posts (1 and a, having trunnions a,which rest in the grooves 0i and a. These posts a and a project throughopenings e on opposite sides of the groove in the rails a, and arealternately raised above the level of the track, while their lower endsalternately rest on the bottom of socket-stops a.

It is obvious that many different forms of device may be used to depressthe posts to the level of the track and operate the switch. If such adevice could be manipulated by the driver, manifest advantages over theusual manual method would be gained. The device shown in Figs. 3, 4, and'5 accomplish this result, and the parts of which I will now describe.

B represents the bottom of a street-car, and

0 the wheels. Attached to the under side of bottom B is a plate, b,having pendants l), to which cross-bars b are attached. These bars havesemicircular depressions for the axle 0. Between these bars b is aspace, b through which the tongues b of a tread, b project and extendupwardly through openings b in plate b, which serves as a guide for thesame. The tread is preferably semicircular in form, and when not in usefits closely to the semicircular part of bars I).

B and B are crank-levers, one at each end of plate b, and having theirinner ends proecting toward each other and resting upon a lug, b, ontongue I), and when moved downwardl y force the tongue and treaddownwardly. When the downward pressure upon tongues b is removed,springsI) force them back to the former position. In the plan View strapspringsare shown; but it is obvious that com pression-springs may besubstituted therefor by inserting them between the lugs b and bars b Tooperate the crank-levers B and B various means may be used, one mannerbeing shown in the drawings, and consists of a drum, D, journaled to oneend of the car, and having a crank, D, provided with notches d, for thedouble pawl d, which holds the drum in the desired position by insertingone of its ends in one of the notches. Between the flanges of the drumis a post, (1 passing through and holding the chain d in place. One endof this chain is connected by link d to the end I) of lever B, and bylinks d with end If" of lever 13*. When the crank D is turned in thedirection indicated by arrow 1, the leverB' is operated,and when turnedin the direction of arrow 2 lever B is operated. So far the descriptionrelates to a single-horse car; but it is obvious that by placing asimilar device at each end of a two-horse car the device can be operatedfrom either end.

The operation of the device is as follows: Suppose a car were moving onthe main track in the direction of the arrow 3 and the driver wishes topass to the right-hand branch track. He should turn the crank D in thedirection of arrow 2. The tread marked 4 would be lowered and strike theright-hand post (Eidepress it to the surface of the track, and by reasonof this movement partly revolve the shaft, which will shift theright-hand rail a from the position shown in dotted lines to theposition shown in full lines, Fig. 1, and thus close the main passageand connect the groove in rail a with the groove in the right-hand railof the branch track. If it be desired to switch the next car to theleft-hand branch,the crank D is moved in the direction of arrow 1, andthe tread marked 5 will be lowered to the track, ready to depress post(1 on the left-hand side of the track, and thus shift the rail a on theleft-hand track. Before this can be done the right-hand rail a must beshifted to the position shown in dotted lines, Fig. 1. This isautomatically accomplished by the rim or tread of the car-wheel strikingthe right-hand post a, which revolves the shaft in an opposite directionto that caused by right-hand post a.

If it be desired to send the second or another car on the main track,therim or tread of the car-wheels will strike both posts a flif raised, andshift the rails a to the position shown in dotted lines, Fig. 1. If onlya single branch track is used,the car may be provided with adouble-flange car-wheel, which will operate both posts on the railnearest the branch track. \Vhen it is desired to go straight ahead,neither of the treads are lowered. The tread of the car-wheels willstrike the post a on each side and shift the rails a into the recess.

What I claim as new is 1. In a switch, the combination of amovable-tongue switch-rail having a projection, a shaft having a slotfor said projection, and posts on each side of and connected with saidshaft, one of said posts being operated by the car-wheel and the otherunder the control of the driver, substantially as described.

2. In a switch, the combination of a movabletongue switch-rail having aprojection, a shaft having a slot for said projection, and collarsprovided with longitudinal openings, and posts having trunnions restingin said longitudinal slots and adapted to be alternately raised by thecar-wheel and mechanism uuder control of the driver, substantially asdescribed.

8. A car-switch having on the whcel-bearing flange of the main railapost operated by the car-wheel, and a second post outside thewheel-bearings, and adapted to be operated by a device on the car undercontrol of the driver, substantially as described.

4.. A car-switch the main rails of which are grooved, the outer flangeshaving a depressible post, and the inner flanges having a depressiblepost which is raised when the posts upon the outer flanges aredepressed, and depressed when the posts on the outer flanges are raised,substantially as and for the p'ur pose set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

N. GREENARD DU BOIS.

Witnesses:

WM. STEvENsoN, F. R. MALONEY.

